"I didn't start college until a week after classes had started," Morgan said. "Someone - a newspaper journalist - had to take me by the collar to get there."

As interim president, Morgan said he hopes to instill the same type of encouragement to prospective students by strengthening recruitment efforts.

"We've hired more staff to help with following up with students after they've applied or expressed interest," he said. "Students are just like anyone else; they'll come if they know they're wanted."

Starting Sept. 1, according to a UH System news release, the portion of the UHV School of Nursing located at the University of Houston Sugar Land location will be absorbed by the University of Houston.

To combat an anticipated loss in enrollment from its nursing program, Morgan said UHV will focus on building freshmen and sophomore enrollment and continuing the university's path toward downward expansion.

"UHV still needs to figure out what it wants to be when it grows up," Morgan said. "After that, then it can start looking for a president."

Morgan will earn an annual salary of $200,000 and a $2,000-per-month car and housing allowance during his time as UHV's interim leader.

In February, the UH System Board of Regents approved recommendations set forth by a UH Sugar Land task force aimed at dissolving the Fort Bend County campus' ties with UHV and extending its services to the University of Houston main campus, which was named a Tier One university by the Carnegie Foundation in 2011.

The news of the coming separation and loss of operations at the UH Sugar Land campus stunned and angered local leadership in Victoria County.

"We want to build back the trust between the system and the community," Morgan said. "UHV is going to come out of this stronger when it's all said and done."

• Former position of leadership: President of Sul Ross State University, where he began a system of shared governance and a student-centered campus philosophy. He also established a monthly breakfast for community leaders to discuss mutually beneficial subjects.

Before UHV expanded in 2010-11 in Victoria, it relied even more heavily on Sugar Land and on its online course offerings.

Today, 31 percent of its face-to-face teaching occurs in Sugar Land. Fifty-three percent of the UHV faculty offices are in Sugar Land. Sugar Land's importance to UHV is focused primarily in nursing and business. The two schools make up 53 percent of UHV's operating budget allocated for academic programs. Although both schools also offer courses in Victoria, the location of faculty offices show where most of the students and programs are - 89 percent of business and 88 percent of nursing faculty are in Sugar Land, based on the spring semester faculty roster.